We found this tea, one of the rarest in the world, I believe, in a secluded valley close to Yuanan County in Hubei Province. The inhabitants of the LuYuan Village are friendly and hospitable, but the site is inaccessible for foreigners, and we could stay only for a few hours.
The village cooperative manager, Master Wang, is a nice man belonging to a very old tradition of manual craftsmanship. Village women pick the tea carefully with nimble hands and then bring it to the small workshop compound, where Master Wang and a few other elders spread the leaves, wither them and roll them by hand in characteristic iron pans. The leaves then undergo a process of "Yellowing under wrapping", in which the green leaves are wrapped into a humid cloth for 7,5 hours. In this way, the heat and humidity allow the leaves to ferment just enough to develop the distinctive roasty, nutty, and floral flavor of Yellow Tea. Yuanan Yellow Tea is mentioned in the Classic of Tea by LuYu, it has a history connected with Ch'an Buddhism, and it is one of the last remaining Yellow teas in China. Production is extremely selective and rigorously organic, and, unfortunately, diminishing year after year because of competition with other popular kinds of tea. It is so rare that grows only in the Danxia Karst landscape of this fringe of Hubei Province, in a dry landscape which is probably the secret of its mellow, subtle, floral density. We are committed to study, preserve, and prolong its history, while at the same time sharing part of our work with local people.